Glenn Davis

BOSTON -- First baseman Glenn Davis, who had been expected to return to the starting lineup in the next few days, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Orioles.The move is retroactive to April 7, the day after the season started, meaning Davis will be eligible to return April 22, a week from tomorrow. The decision was made this morning, and outfielder Luis Mercedes has been recalled from Rochester to take Davis' spot on the roster.Davis, suffering a strain of the rib cage muscle, has missed six games after playing in the 2-0 victory over Cleveland on Opening Day. "Originally it was thought he'd be out only a day or two," said manager John Oates, who met with general manager Roland Hemond and assistant GM Frank Robinson last night.

Angus Phillips, an inveterate Annapolis-area crabber, joined my call for a moratorium on the harvest of blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. "The time has come," he wrote in The Washington Post last month, "to stop pussyfooting around and shut down crabbing for a few years, to give the delectable crustaceans a chance to recover the way geese, yellow perch and rockfish did. " Phillips wrote about fishing and hunting for 30-plus years at The Post...

Back in 2005, federal authorities asked Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada whether he ever took steroids, androstenedione or any other steroid precursor, and he said, "No." They asked whether he was aware of any discussions among other players about steroids, and he replied, "No, I never heard." Really? Not to imply that Tejada was lying - that's for the FBI to determine in an investigation that began this week - but it's hard to believe he wasn't privy to a conversation or two pertaining to the drug.

Jan. 10, 1991: "We're a better team than we were yesterday," Orioles manager Frank Robinson says after the trade that brings slugging Houston Astros first baseman Glenn Davis to Baltimore in exchange for three young players - pitchers Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch, and outfielder Steve Finley. Schilling blossoms into one of baseball's best, while Harnisch and Finley become All Stars. Davis, meanwhile, hits 24 home runs in three years, and retires. Jan. 12, 1983: Brooks Robinson becomes the 14th player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first try, excluding the five-member inaugural class.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Glenn Davis makes you blink. He stands there in the sun and wind taking batting practice, this 29-year-old with all those home runs to his name, and you blink. He just doesn't look that big. As tall as Bill Ripken. No stronger than Craig Worthington. Not small, oh, no, but no Ruthian giant. He doesn't stand out. Yeah, that's the way to put it. He just doesn't stand out.And yet: All those homers, one for every 18 at-bats in the major leagues. And yet: Balls are coming off his bat with a sweet, resounding clap, the sound of perfect contact, wood meeting ball squarely, as intended.

Storm Davis came back to Baltimore yesterday -- just for a visit, but soon to try his hand in the renovation of the Baltimore Orioles pitching staff.New teammate and old soulmate Glenn Davis picked him up at the airport and drove him to Memorial Stadium, where he talked about his past and his future at the press luncheon in his honor.He was acquired last week from the Kansas City Royals for catcher Bob Melvin. He and his wife, Angie, were flown in by the Orioles yesterday to meet the media, though Storm knew almost everybody from his first tour of duty here.

Glenn Davis can see it all so clearly now. He looks back at hi troubled boyhood and sees purpose. He looks at his charmed baseball career and sees opportunity. He looks toward the future and sees hope. He looks at it all and sees the makings of a great book, maybe a movie."It would beat the heck out of 'Field of Dreams,' if you knew the whole story," he says, hoping he never has to tell the whole story again.It is a disturbing one, a story of such heartache and personal horror that Davis felt compelled to tell it over and over until the hurting stopped and the telling started to hurt the people he finally was learning how to love.

Orioles manager Johnny Oates had said he wanted to make first baseman Glenn Davis' return to the lineup a gradual one.But he got an opportunity to get Davis, absent for six weeks with a rib-cage muscle strain, back into competition quickly last night, when the Minnesota Twins yanked righthanded starter Kevin Tapani in the fourth for lefthanded reliever Mark Guthrie.Davis pinch hit for designated hitter Sam Horn in the fifth, grounding out to third, and batted again in the seventh, striking out.Davis said he felt "really good," but that "everything was just in fast motion, super speed.

It's been a long time coming, but Glenn Davis finally got back to the field last night.Davis, who started at first base on Opening Day against the Cleveland Indians, got his second non-DH start of the year in the 110th game of the season last night against the Indians."

Glenn Davis' first season as an Oriole was a pain in the neck, his second a pain in the side.But now, the ache in Davis' career appears to have been transferred to a more appropriate place -- the opposition's pitching staff.If Davis stays as hot through August and September as he has been in July, the Orioles could still be playing meaningful baseball in October. For much of this month, Davis' long-silent bat has been making big noise for the Orioles. It is a similar frequency to the one that made him one of the National League's most-feared sluggers in the 1980s.

Good news for the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum: One of its most prized possessions is staying put. That would be the rare 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie baseball card, whose owner phoned the museum Tuesday and agreed to leave the card on display there for the foreseeable future. "I vacillated between the Babe Ruth Museum and Cooperstown," said owner Glenn Davis, referring to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate New York. "But I kept coming back to the Babe Ruth Museum, and I think that's the proper place for it. They've done a great job taking care of the card all these years."

Well, that didn't take long. Less than 24 hours after The Baltimore Sun ran a story about the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum's year-long search for the owner of a rare and valuable baseball card, the owner has surfaced. A man identifying himself as Glenn Davis of Bethany Beach, Del., contacted the museum ÃÂÃÂ and the newspaper -- to say he was the owner of the 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card. It's one of the most valuable cards on the market, with an estimated value of $500,000.

Back in 2005, federal authorities asked Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada whether he ever took steroids, androstenedione or any other steroid precursor, and he said, "No." They asked whether he was aware of any discussions among other players about steroids, and he replied, "No, I never heard." Really? Not to imply that Tejada was lying - that's for the FBI to determine in an investigation that began this week - but it's hard to believe he wasn't privy to a conversation or two pertaining to the drug.

The memories tend to get a little fuzzy, but it's true that Glenn Davis, the former Orioles first baseman and magnet for bad luck, broke his jaw outside a Virginia Beach bar when a bouncer with a nasty reputation decided to add to it. Davis was on an injury rehab assignment with Triple-A Rochester. And it's true that in his first game back with the team, he was hit in the head by a line drive while sitting on the bench. Before having the injury confirmed, reporters joked in the press box that the ball probably hit Davis.

Five winners ... December 1965: Acquired OF Frank Robinson from Reds for P Milt Pappas, P Jack Baldschun and OF Dick Simpson. Comment: Pappas was a solid starter, but what a small price to pay for a Hall of Famer, a Triple Crown, four pennants and two world championships. June 1976: Acquired P Scott McGregor, P Tippy Martinez, P Rudy May, P Dave Pagan and C Rick Dempsey from Yankees for P Ken Holtzman, P Doyle Alexander, P Grant Jackson, P Jimmy Freeman and C Elrod Hendricks. Comment: Deadline deal by GM Hank Peters did a lot more than dump a couple of pending free agents.

Whoever coined the phrase "Truth is stranger than fiction" must have had a baseball background.Only in Hollywood could they conjure up a script that has a thought-to-be-over-the-hill, 38-year-old catcher going home to help his team win a World Series. Such was the case with Rick Dempsey in 1988, when the Los Angeles Dodgers stunned the Oakland Athletics.And only in Baltimore could the announcement of a 42-year-old former hero returning for a tryout be construed as news worthy of headlines.

Boston Red Sox star Curt Schilling laughs when he thinks about the morning he found out he was no longer an Oriole. It was a career ago, and he was a naive, 24-year-old kid who really didn't know what had hit him. "I remember it clearly," Schilling said. "I was sitting at home, eating breakfast with my wife - my girlfriend then - and [then-Orioles general manager] Roland Hemond called. He said, `Kid, I just wanted to let you know that we made a trade today.' "I thought that was pretty cool, calling me like that.